Woomo or Japanese Hatchimals might be the last big trend in 2016 in Japan

Now Woomo is very popular since its release in October in Japan.
Everyone, especially parents that have a child looks for this toy around the town.

But most of the shops don’t have its stock as they had been sold out already.
The only place guarantees its stock is Amazon but the price has gone far up than its retail price.

What is Woomo in the first place

Woomo is an interactive toy that you need to raise.

It looks like penguin when it grew up.

It is inside an egg first that you need to hatch it.
Even inside it reacts if you shake or pat it lightly.
And you can see its eyes light up from inside sometimes and that shows its emotions.
For example, when its eyes color are blue, it is the sign of it feels lonely.
Then you need to rub the egg and it feels good.

Woomo is name in Japan and Hatchimals is name in US.
I’m not sure there are big difference or not other than name between them.
Here I introduce process of growth of Woomo in Japan.

Growth and characteristics of Woomo

Egg

It reacts inside egg.
You need to warm the egg to encourage hatching of it.

You can also hear the pounding of its heart.
It becomes happy and makes a happy cheep when you pat or shake it lightly.
When you see the blue eyes through the egg, that means it feels lonely that you need to pat it gently.

It sometimes catch a cold that warm it to make it feel better.
It knocks back from inside if you knock the egg lightly.

When it sing a song of “Happy Birthday” it is the time of hatching.
It breaks the shell itself, I thought this is great, but it also needs your help at the last step to take itself out of the shell.

Baby Woomo

It moves around automatically or on its own will.
It eats food, too.
Of course, it is not real food, foods of cards are attached that you need to tilt woomo to the foods.

Patting head makes it happy.
It laughs when you tickle it.
Pat it if it catch a cold.

It even makes a hiccup, too.
The way to stop it is making a clap by your hands.
It reacts even to the sound, doesn’t it.

Kid Woomo

It imitates what you spoke to.
Top of it, it dances to the music it makes.

Looks like the language it speaks also changes a bit with the growth.
One clap makes it move and two makes a return.

Junior Woomo

You can enjoy game with Woomo.

Rhythm game is the game you clap to the sound of it makes.
You can play tag, too.
It moves around that you touch it when its eyes became red color.

Types

There are 8 types of Woomo and you can choose the egg you want from 4 eggs (each eggs has 2 types).
So you don’t know which types you got until it hatches.

And the language or tone it speaks looks like a little different depends on the type.
For example, it has a cute voice and hair style for the pink color while blue color has a different dragon-like tail and wing.

It is an interesting we don’t know what we got until it hatches and the differences of characteristics each has.

New Woomo Kuminko and Kamecyo join

On March 2017, new type Kuminko and Kamecyo are released.

Color of Kuminko-family is black or white.
Characteristics of it is it has cute round ears and big hands.
Color of Kamecyo is soda or purple.
Kamecyo-family has feelers and pattern of carapace or carapace itself on the back.

Now totally there are 12 types with these new types.
What is common in all the types is that they are all cute!

Why Woomo got so popular

There is a Japanese YouTuber called Hikikan and he is the first one who made this booming.
He is very popular YouTuber in Japan and he introduced Woomo in his channel.

And it triggered this boom.

I also thought this is a unique item when I watched his channel.
It is world’s first item to hatch and grows by itself that I can understand the boom.

And another face of it is its brand TAKARA TOMY’s marketing.
TAKARA TOMY is a famous and popular for its miniature car toy TOMIKA worldwide.
TAKARA TOMY aimed at Christmas and released Woomo to Christmas.

It was right, as now in the middle of December, no stock in most of the shops.

Influencer Hikikan, world’s first item, and its release date before Christmas made this Woomo big hit.

Where to get Woomo (Hatchimals)?

I myself checked if there is Woomo to some shops in Tokyo and Saitama.
But I couldn’t see them at any toy corner at this point in early December 2016.

I asked the sales clerk and he also told me no stock now.

What I could find was only Amazon, on the internet.
Although it might still be expensive but it was first and last place I could find it.

You can also find it in auction site.

I think eBay is the biggest auction site so far and I think you might be able to find Woomo at good price if you are lucky.

Another suggestion is Japanese auction site called Yafuoku but it is all written in Japanese and most Japanese seller don’t ship the items to overseas.
Still it might be good to consider it as one of the options.

But I also recommend you to check real shop in your place as well.
From big shop such as Toys”R”Us, Bic Camera, Yamada etc. (in case you live in Japan) to private small toy shop as they might happen to have stock if you ask.

I’m not sure if the difference is just the name or not between Japanese version and US version.

Certainly this is a unique item and I might have begged my parents if I were kid.
It is not cheap toy as it is 9500 yen including tax (About $83) and you can’t buy at the price now as its price got higher with the popularity.

Actually if you don’t care when you get, I think after Christmas or maybe next year is better as the price will comes back to its retail price although it is still not cheap price after all.

Or what I wrote here is all about in Japan that you might have it at local small shop in your country.

Summary and Video of Woomo from Takara Tomy

I understand the price if taking the idea, quality and mechanism into consideration.

Certainly it would be a great gift from Santa Claus in Christmas.

If you want to know more about Japanese Woomo check the video from following official website of Takara Tomy.

Takara Tomy
Official Website (Japanese) : http://www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/woomo/

Author : Hiroshi